When will you buy your kid their first cell phone?
Remember when cell phone bills were $13/month and considered a luxury reserved for suave businessmen and tech-savvy entrepreneurs? Now, leaving home without your phone evokes a bizarre phantom limb-like syndrome where your pocket inexplicably buzzes every few minutes, a reminder of your absentee smartphone better half.
It’s probably why we hardly flinched at the recent study by American Express where modern parents say 12 is the perfect age to own that first cell phone. That’s right – 12 years old. Okay, maybe we flinched a little.
The study also found phone purchases for tweens – ages 10 to 14 – spiked from 57 per cent last year to 64 per cent this year. You've got to have the latest and greatest right?
Three quarters of parents surveyed, say they’ll purchase a smart phone for their child calling it critical for safety and socializing. It's a bit weird considering you don't need an Internet connection or data plan to stay in touch and you must be 13 to sign up for popular mobile apps like Facebook or Twitter. What's wrong with a good, old flip phone?
[ Check out more Back-to-School tips in our Tech Guide ]
On average, parents said they will spend US$529 on electronics alone during this year's back-to-school shopping season. Overall, parents expect to spend $1,151 on everything from calculators to binders this year, an increase of 5 per cent in total spending.
But there’s no way around it, kids are highly connected these days.
A survey by Canadian media-literacy focused non-profit MediaSmarts, of 5,436 Canadian students, grades four through 11 found that 99 per cent of all students have access to the Internet outside of school.
MediaSmarts also found that 39 per cent of kids sleep next to their phones in case they get a call during the night.
It seems starting young is to ensure you’ll get that eerie smart phone phantom limb in your latter years when you leave it behind – that is if we’re not all embedded with microchips by then.
